If you're seeing a lot of screen tearing and motion artifacts while playing your favorite PC games, it may be time to invest in a high-speed gaming monitor that supports anti-tearing technology. The Acer XG270HU ($499.99) is one such display. It uses AMD's FreeSync anti-tearing technology, a fast 1ms pixel response, and a 144Hz refresh rate to provide smooth, artifact-free gaming performance. Its 27-inch Twisted Nematic (TN) panel delivers a sharp 2,560-by-1,440 (WQHD) picture, and it offers advanced color settings, but its color accuracy could be better, and its grayscale and viewing-angle performance are middling. It's also missing a few key features, such as USB ports, dual HDMI ports, and a fully adjustable stand, that you get with more expensive models, like our Editors' Choice for large-screen gaming monitors, the LG 27UD88-W.

Design and Features Its metallic-copper trim, glossy black cabinet, and frameless design leave little doubt that the XG270HU is meant for gaming. The 1.5-inch cabinet sits atop an X-shaped stand that offers 20 degrees of tilt (5 forward, 15 backward), but lacks height, swivel, and pivot adjustments. The panel has a peak brightness of 350cd/m2, a 16:9 aspect ratio, a 1,000:1 native contrast ratio, and a non-reflective, antiglare coating. You don't get any USB ports with this display, but you do get three video inputs: one HDMI 2.0, one DisplayPort 1.2, and one DVI. They are all located around back, facing outward, and are joined by an audio input and a headphone jack. The monitor's 2-watt speakers are moderately loud, but lack bass.

There are six buttons located on the right side of the cabinet that are used to power up the monitor and navigate the settings menus. They also serve as hotkeys to select one of five picture presets (Standard, Movie, Graphics, ECO, and User) and adjust brightness. In addition to the above-mentioned picture preset and Brightness settings, you can adjust Contrast, Gamma, Sharpness, and Color Temperature levels, and you get the same advanced 6-Axis Saturate and 6-Axis Hue color adjustments that you get with the Acer Predator XB271HU. For gamers who like to put in long hours, there are four Low-Blue-Light settings to help reduce eyestrain, but this model lacks the crosshair-aiming reticles found on the Acer Predator line of monitors.

The XG270HU comes with a three-year warranty on parts, labor, and backlight. Included in the box are DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, and audio cables.

Performance The XG270HU shines when it comes to gaming performance, thanks to its speedy pixel response and refresh rate. There was no noticeable blurring or ghosting on my Crysis 3 (PC) and Grand Theft Auto V (Sony PlayStation 4) tests, and fast action was fluid. Although there was no discernable screen tearing with FreeSync disabled, enabling FreeSync produced a noticeably smoother picture. I saw this with the AOC U2879VF and the Samsung LC27F591FDN monitors as well.

The XG270HU's 23ms input lag (the time it takes for the monitor to react to a controller command), as measured using a Leo Bodnar Video Signal Lag Tester, is a bit on the long side for a gaming monitor. The BenQ XL2430T measured a league-leading 9.5ms.

Out-of-the-box color accuracy was decent, but not ideal. As shown on the chromaticity chart below, red and blue colors (represented by the colored dots) are both slightly misaligned with their ideal CIE coordinates (represented by the boxes), and green is completely outside of its box, which is fairly common among TN panels. Fortunately, none of the colors are so far out of whack that they cause the picture to appear oversaturated, and you can bring them into alignment using the 6-Axis color settings.

Grayscale performance was also good, but not great, in testing. The panel had no trouble accurately displaying dark shades of gray on the DisplayMate 64-Step Grayscale test, but the two lightest shades were whitewashed, resulting in soft highlight detail in my test images. That said, overall WQHD image quality was sharp, and colors appeared bright while displaying scenes from The Expendables 3 on Blu-ray. When viewed from a side, top, or bottom angle of around 70 degrees, however, there was noticeable color shifting and loss of luminance.

The XG270HU consumed 45 watts of power in testing while operating in Standard mode. That's a good deal more than the Samsung LC27F591FDN (22 watts), but more efficient than the Acer XB271HK (52 watts). When set to ECO mode, the XG270HU used 26 watts, compared with the Samsung LC27F591FDN's 17 watts and the Acer XB271HK's 40 watts.

Conclusion The Acer XG270HU is a fine choice if you're a gamer who wants a 27-inch gaming monitor that provides smooth action and looks good doing it. It uses a 144Hz refresh rate and a 1ms pixel response to keep motion blur and ghosting at bay, and it supports AMD's FreeSync technology, which eliminates screen tearing and provides a silky smooth picture. That said, the TN panel's color accuracy was a bit skewed in testing, and its grayscale and viewing-angle performance were less than stellar. If your budget allows, consider our Editors' Choice for big-screen gaming monitors, the LG 27UD88-W. Granted, it costs about $200 more than the XG270HU, but its In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel offers better grayscale performance and wider viewing angles, and it is equipped with USB ports (including a USB-C port), multiple video HDMI inputs, and a fully adjustable stand.

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About the Author

As a Contributing Editor for PCMag, John Delaney has been testing and reviewing monitors, TVs, PCs, networking and smart home gear, and other assorted hardware and peripherals for almost 20 years. A 13-year veteran of PC Magazine's Labs (most recently as Director of Operations), John was responsible for the recruitment, training and management of t... See Full Bio

Acer XG270HU

Acer XG270HU

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